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PAPERS  ■**£££* ;  r1 

READ  AT  THE 

Conference  on  the   Problems  of  the 
Rural  Church 


HELD    IN    BOSTON 
MARCH  13  AND  14,  1911 


* 


Gbe  Cosmos  press 

EDW.    W.    WHEELER 
30  BOYLSTON  ST.,  CAMBRIDGE,  MASS. 


of  thi 


PROGRAM  OF  THE  CONFERENCE 


Monday,  March  Thirteenth 

4  P.  M. 

Address. —  Rev.  Warren  H.  Wilson,  Superintendent  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Church  and  Rural  Life,  Presbyterian  Church . 

Address. —  Professor  H.  K.  Rowe,  Newton  Theological  Institution, 
Newton  Centre,  Mass. 

"Some  Statistics  Regarding  Church  Attendance  and  Church 
Work  in  Rural  New  England." 

Address. —  Rev.  J.  N.  Pardee,  Bolton,  Mass. 

"The  Awakening  of  the  Theological  Schools  to  the  Needs 
of  the  Country  Pastorate." 

7  P.  M. 

The  Social  Education  Club  of  Boston  held  an  open  dinner- 
discussion  at  Youngs  Hotel,  on  the  general  topic  of  "Rural 
Education  and  Rural  Life."  Those  who  were  in  attendance 
upon  our  conference  were  invited  to  meet  with  them. 
Professors  Fred  Rasmussen,  of  the  New  Hampshire  College, 
and  B.  H.  Hibbard,  of  the  Iowa  State  College,  were  the 
principal  speakers. 

Tuesday,  March  Fourteenth 
10  A.  M. 

Address. —  Rt.   Rev.   Edward  M.   Parker,   Bishop   Coadjutor    of 
New  Hampshire. 
"An  Ideal  of  Country  Church  Settlement  Work." 


Address. —  Professor  Robert   J.    Syr  ague,   University   of   Maine, 
Orono,  Maine. 
'  'The  Rural  Church  and  the  Beautification  of  the  Country." 

2.30  P.  M. 

Address. —  Rev.  W.  M.  Cutler,  East  Jaffrey,  N.  H. 

"One  Solution  of  the  Problem  of  the  Country  Church." 

Address. —  Professor  0.  H.  Benson,  United  States  Department 
of  Agriculture. 

"Education  for  Rural  Uplift."     Illustrated  with  Stereop- 
ticon. 


Officers. 

President,  Professor  T.  N.  Carver,  Harvard  University. 
Secretary,  Rev.  J.  N.  Pardee,  Bolton,  Mass. 

Executive  Committee, — 

President   Kenton  L.  Butterfield,    Massachusetts   Agri- 
cultural College,  Amherst,  Mass. 

Professor  W.  D.  Hurd,  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College, 
Amherst,  Mass. 

Dr.  Owen  H.  Gates,  Andover  Theological  Library. 

Professor  Henry  K.  Rowe,  Newton  Theological  Institution, 
Newton  Centre,  Mass. 

Professor  A.  R.  Merriam,  Hartford  Theological  Seminary, 
Hartford,  Conn. 

Professor  Henry   S.    Nash,   Episcopal  Theological   School, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 

Professor  George  M.  Harmon,  Tufts  College,  Mass. 

Professor  W.  W.  Fenn,  Harvard  University,  Cambridge,  Mass. 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  WORKING  FARMER. 

BY  REV.   WARREN  H.   WILSON,   D.D.,   NEW  YORK. 

The  church  is  dealing  in  the  country  community  with  a  healthy 
and  moral  population  of  American  stock.  Our  recent  investiga- 
tions in  Pennsylvania,  Indiana,  and  Illinois  have  shown  that  the 
farming  population  has  high  vitality,  is  free  generally  from  immoral 
conditions,  and  is  but  little  affected  by  the  immigration  which  is 
filling  the  cities  and  the  factory  towns.  The  process  described 
by  Anderson  in  "The  Country  Town"  is  shown  to  be  very  general 
in  the  sifting  of  the  country  population.  The  bolder  and  more 
enterprising  individuals,  both  good  and  evil,  have  gone  to  the  city. 
The  country  church,  therefore,  has  to  deal  with  an  unprogressive, 
healthy,  satisfied,  and  American  population. 

The  work  of  the  church  is  profoundly  affected  by  the  redistri- 
bution of  land  which  is  going  on  all  over  the  United  States.  Since 
1890,  as  recently  shown  by  Professor  J.  B.  Ross,  the  exploitation 
of  land  throughout  the  country  has  gone  very  far,  especially  in 
the  Middle  West.  Before  that  time  the  farmer  had  permanent 
notions  of  country  residence.  The  evidences  of  this  exploiting 
in  land  are  shown  in  tenant  farmers,  absentee  landlords,  retired 
farmers,  and  speculators.  Under  these  conditions  entirely  new 
values  of  land  and  men  have  come  to  prevail  in  the  country  com- 
munity. The  earlier  values  were  based  on  the  first  use  of  the  soil, 
the  first  values  of  timber  and  of  pasture,  the  first  profits  of  the 
market. 

Present  values  are  based  on  final  or  marginal  utility.  Their 
source  is  not  plenty,  but  bare  subsistence.  The  profit  made  under 
the  new  condition  is  a  profit  in  the  by-products,  whereas  the  earlier 
profit  was  a  substantial  portion  of  the  raw  products  of  the  soil, 
the  forest,  and  the  pasture.  We  are  obliged  to  deal  too  with  margi- 
nal values  in  men.  The  church  in  the  early  days  standardized 
her  work  upon  the  leading  citizens,  upon  the  brighter  and  abler, 
the  wealthier  and  the  more  successful  members  of  the  congregation. 

3 


The  modern  church  is  directing  her  policies  by  the  needs  of  the  poor. 
The  country  church  today  has  learned  that  her  survival  is  depend- 
ent on  the  tenant  farmer  and  farm  hand,  upon  the  young  people 
of  the  community,  and  the  boys  and  girls  in  the  farm  household. 
If  the  church  can  minister  to  these  effectively,  it  will  survive,  for 
they  are  the  marginal  units  by  whom  human  values  are  today 
determined. 

Once  again  in  America  we  have  a  time  when  the  "  soil  is  holy." 
In  the  early  days  the  soil  was  sanctified  at  Plymouth  Rock  and  at 
Philadelphia  and  at  Baltimore;  indeed  on  all  the  eastern  coasts, 
by  the  devout  feelings  of  those  who  fled  from  oppression  and  found 
in  America  religious  liberty.  The  Pilgrims  knelt  in  the  sand  on 
the  New  England  shore.  William  Penn  called  his  grant  of  land 
from  Charles  The  Second,  a  "holy  experiment."  The  Catholics 
consecrated  the  soil  of  Maryland  to  religious  liberty. 

The  modern  prophets  of  the  holiness  of  the  soil  are  economists. 
These  men  value  the  soil  for  its  utility  in  meeting  the  needs  of  the 
whole  people.  The  soil  is  holy  in  their  estimation  because  only 
by  its  conservation  can  the  poor  be  fed  and  clothed.  The  test 
of  American  husbandry  is  its  value  to  landless  men,  tenant  farmers 
in  the  country,  and  workingmen  in  the  city,  who  do  not  own  the 
tools  by  which  they  get  their  living.  The  soil  is  declared  to  be 
holy  by  the  scientific  agriculturist,  because  it  has  values  for  our 
children  as  well  as  ourselves.  It  must  not  be  wasted,  or  robbed, 
or  exploited,  because  to  waste  the  soil  is  to  rob  the  poor  and  to 
increase  the  cost  of  living  for  the  workingman  and  to  lay  burdens 
upon  our  children,  yet  unborn. 

We  have,  then,  a  new  kind  of  holy  man  and  woman  in  this 
country.  I  think  it  is  fair  to  say  that  no  woman  in  America  is 
more  loved  and  revered  than  Jane  Addams,  who  has  devoted  her 
life  to  the  service  of  marginal  people  in  Chicago.  The  leading 
member  of  the  Negro  race,  who  possesses  the  respect  and  affection 
of  both  the  White  and  the  Negro,  is  Booker  T.  Washington,  who 
is  ministering  to  the  Negro  as  a  marginal  element  in  the  American 
population.  The  poor,  that  is,  they  who  are  without  land  and 
without  ownership  in  the  tools  of  modern  industry,  determine 
the  moral  and  spiritual  conditions  in  the  community.  Tenants 
and  farm  hands  set  the  moral  tone  with  the  same  precision  with 
which  the  marginal  mill  hand  fixes  the  wages  in  the  cotton  mill. 
For  this  reason  institutions  such  as  the  country  church  are  obliged 

4 


to  turn  their  attention  to  the  service  of  the  poor.  The  country 
church  and  the  country  school  will  survive  or  perish  by  the  ministry 
they  can  render  to  the  duller  and  weaker  folk  in  the  country.  To 
help  them  is  to  help  all.  This  can  be  said  of  no  other  class  in  the 
country  community.  The  poor  are  the  distributing  centre  of  all 
advantage  for  the  community,  as  a  whole.  The  dull  and  the 
ignorant  who  are  just  able  to  survive  in  the  community  must  be 
the  target  of  all  policies  which  are  to  have  value  for  the  whole 
community. 

This  is  the  reason  why  the  country  school  needs  to  be  improved. 
The  one-room  country  school  has  had  great  influence  upon  the 
bright  and  ambitious  pupils,  who  loved  books  and  desired  to  get  on. 
It  has  sent  them  out  of  the  community,  being  organized  "as  if  to 
populate  the  city  at  the  expense  of  the  country."  But  the  country 
school  must  be  reformed  in  the  interest  of  the  dull,  but  industrious, 
who  will  permanently  live  in  the  community.  The  determining 
principle  in  reforming  the  country  school  is  to  make  it  an  institu- 
tion for  teaching  agriculture  and  giving  general  industrial  training 
to  those  whose  lives  shall  be  lived  in  that  community. 

We  have  churches  of  this  sort.  Du  Page  Church  in  Illinois, 
under  Mr.  McNutt's  pastorate,  has  ministered  to  the  needs  of  the 
young  people  in  a  populous  countryside.  It  has  satisfied  the  social 
requirements  of  that  community  and  thus  served  all  the  needs  of 
the  people  there. 

West  Nottingham  Church  in  Maryland,  under  the  leadership  of 
Mr.  Polk,  has  become  a  centre  of  better  agriculture.  In  an  old 
farming  country  where  the  tillage  of  the  soil  must  be  radically 
improved,  Mr.  Polk  has  become  conspicuous  in  the  Farmers' 
Club,  which  is  reorganizing  the  farming  industry  on  a  scientific 
basis.  This  church  is  reestablishing  the  farming  population  and 
making  it  permanent  on  a  basis  of  husbandry. 

The  uniting  of  a  whole  community  in  one  church  was  my  own 
task  in  this  State  in  my  first  ministry  in  Duchess  County.  The 
determining  principle  in  organizing  this  church  at  Quaker  Hill 
was  that  all  the  Christian  people  of  the  community  should  be 
served  by  the  new  organization.  Members  and  attendants  of  all 
the  denominations  were  received  into  this  small  church.  At  its 
organization  it  was  sanctioned  by  the  five  congregations  surround- 
ing it,  representing  five  different  denominations. 

At  Rock  Creek,  111.,  and  at  McNab,  111.,  the  leading  members  of 

5 


the  country  church  have  in  each  community  effected  the  recon- 
struction of  the  country  schools.  They  have  secured  in  the  open 
country  a  centralized  and  consolidated  school,  through  which  the 
retirement  from  the  farms  has  been  stopped  and  the  building  of 
the  country  community  has  been  made  possible. 

"The  best  farmers  in  America,"  says  Professor  Carver  of 
Harvard,  "  are  the  Mormons,  Scotch  Presbyterians,  and  Pennsyl- 
vania Germans."  I  am  not  an  authority  on  economics,  but  I  can 
lay  alongside  of  this  statement  the  fact  that  the  best  country 
churches  in  America  are  Mormon,  Scotch  Presbyterian,  and  Penn- 
sylvania German.  These  farmers  till  the  land  by  their  religion. 
They  worship  God  as  united  farming  communities.  They  think 
the  land  is  holy,  as  Dean  Bailey  has  declared.  They  have  not 
been  affected  by  redistribution  of  land.  Their  acres  are  not  for 
sale,  neither  are  their  country  churches  suffering  any  distress, 
because  they  have  long  ago  discovered  and  continued  to  practice 
the  principle  that  agriculture  is  a  religious  occupation  and  the 
Christian  Church  is  a  perfect  expression  of  the  devotion  of  the 
rural  economy. 


SOME   STATISTICS   OF    CHURCH   ATTENDANCE    AND 
CHURCH  WORK  IN  RURAL  NEW  ENGLAND. 

BY  PROFESSOR  HENRY  K.  ROWE,  NEWTON  THEOLOGICAL  INSTITUTION. 

The  statistics  that  make  up  this  report  are  the  result  of  inves- 
tigations made  a  little  over  a  year  ago  into  the  conditions  of  rural 
churches  here  in  New  England.  A  series  of  questions  was  sent 
out  to  about  thirteen  hundred  country  ministers  of  all  denomina- 
tions. Of  these  ten  per  cent  were  returned  with  replies.  One 
hundred  were  worth  tabulating,  and  it  is  on  these  as  a  basis  that 
this  report  is  presented.  In  general  the  records  were  unsatis- 
factory; a  very  large  proportion  of  the  churches  reported  nothing 
by  way  of  social  effort  aside  from  the  routine  activities  of  most 
churches.  Thirty-eight  ministers  showed  sufficient  interest  in 
the  investigation  to  volunteer  remarks  in  addition  to  answering 
the  questions,  and  many  of  them  reflected  a  spirit  of  hopefulness. 
Some  are  in  a  very  difficult  situation,  and  asked  for  suggestions, 
but  they  showed  no  evidence  of  despair.  One  pastor  with  a  church 
of  twenty-five  members  asked  to  be  directed  to  a  source  whence 
he  might  secure  evening  lecturers.  Another  requested  speakers 
for  a  local  conference  in  the  interests  of  a  federation  of  effort. 
Another  reported  union  of  evangelistic  effort  in  a  whole  county. 
A  Vermont  town  told  of  the  organization  of  a  committee  of  nine 
from  three  churches  to  canvass  the  town  in  the  interests  of  temper- 
ance, and  the  extension  of  the  scheme  to  include  a  joint  campaign 
of  education  for  the  young  people  of  the  town.  A  Massachusetts 
pastor  in  an  unusually  overchurched  community  writes:  "I  am 
watching  your  association  with  interest,  and  waiting  for  the  waters 
to  get  troubled  enough  to  give  a  fellow  a  chance  to  do  some  of  the 
things  he  would  like  to  do."  A  Vermont  minister  gives  the  crux 
of  the  whole  situation  at  the  same  time  that  he  shows  his  own  sense 
of  duty  when  he  writes:  "  We  are  anxious  in  our  position  of  excep- 
tional responsibility  and  opportunity  to  get  into  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  all  without  the  church  that  the  church  is  ideally  the  com- 
munity worshiping  and  serving  God.     It  is  hard  to  kill  the  old 


notion  that  it  is  a  private  limited  body  with  narrow  aims  and 
functions  and  restricted  range  of  appeal." 

It  is  plain  that  common  criticism  of  ministers  is  not  to  be 
extended  to  all.  But  some  are  pessimistic.  One  writer,  lamenting 
sectarian  jealousy,  declared  that  until  this  spirit  was  eliminated,  it 
was  impossible  for  conditions  to  be  made  very  different.  "  Nitro- 
glycerin would  hardly  explode  the  conscience  of  many  indifferents," 
wrote  another.  Bigotry  and  clannishness,  a  disposition  to  be 
satisfied  with  the  past  and  its  methods,  and  a  general  indifference 
are  among  the  evils  deplored.  Expressions  like  these  mark  the 
feeling  of  the  discouraged  ministers.  "It  would  be  difficult  to 
bring  congregations  to  work  together.  Too  many  difficulties  in 
the  past  to  forget.  Perhaps  after  a  number  of  funerals  it  might 
be  different."  "  The  work  drags.  The  pastors  have  worked  hard, 
but  it  is  hard  to  get  warm  in  a  refrigerator." 

A  very  common  evil  is  the  presence  of  too  many  churches  in  a 
community,  but  this  is  not  so  universal  an  evil  as  some  seem  to 
think.  Not  only  are  there  too  many  church  organizations  and 
buildings  in  towns  that  have  been  depleted  of  population,  but 
seating  capacity  is  also  out  of  all  proportion  to  church  membership 
and  attendance.  A  town  in  New  Hampshire  with  a  total  church 
membership  of  one  hundred  and  sixty-five  and  an  average  attend- 
ance of  one  hundred  and  fifty  has  sittings  for  nine  hundred.  A 
town  in  Massachusetts  with  a  population  of  only  a  thousand  has 
sittings  for  twelve  hundred  persons.  The  data  are  not  sufficient 
for  drawing  very  general  conclusions  as  to  attendance,  but  the 
indications  are  that  in  the  typical  rural  community  not  more  than 
fifteen  per  cent  of  the  people  attend  church.  Yet  four  towns  report 
a  proportion  of  one  church  to  every  one  hundred  people  or  less, 
seven  towns  report  one  church  to  every  one  hundred  and  seventy 
people,  fifty  towns  one  to  about  two  hundred  and  seventy-five, 
and  twenty-six  towns  one  to  about  three  hundred  and  seventy-five. 
Naturally  the  membership  of  the  churches  reporting  is  small. 
Fifty-seven  out  of  eighty-three  have  between  twenty  and  one  hun- 
dred members;  fifteen  number  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty.     Of  these  only  twelve  had  an  appreciable  gain  yearly. 

Two  ways  have  been  recommended  frequently  to  remedy  the 
evils  of  overchurching :  union  of  churches,  and  federation  or 
cooperation.  Inquiry,  therefore,  was  made  as  to  the  extent  of 
such  getting  together.     About  half  the  churches  reported  coopera- 


tion  of  some  kind,  two  thirds  of  the  instances  consisting  of  union 
evangelistic  meetings,  mostly  occasional.  Eight  united  in  further- 
ance of  temperance  and  good  government.  Two  pastors  report 
that  mutual  consultation  goes  on  between  them  and  others  in  their 
towns,  and  they  call  on  all  Protestants  in  town.  One  writes: 
"With  a  union  picnic,  union  Christmas  tree,  union  Memorial 
Day  service,  union  Sunday  evening  services,  the  Congregationalist 
and  Methodist  pastors  calling  jointly  on  all  the  families  of  the  town 
in  a  canvass  —  how  beautiful  and  how  pleasant  it  is  for  brethren 
to  dwell  together  in  unity."  In  two  places  a  mutual  arrangement 
is  maintained  for  services  in  jails,  and  one  at  a  county  farm. 

To  determine  what  agencies  existed  in  the  rural  communities 
for  social  life  and  moral  uplift,  definite  information  was  asked. 
In  reply  the  following  facts  were  brought  out.  Forty-nine  com- 
munities contain  one  or  more  granges;  thirty-six  have  other 
lodges  or  clubs  for  men;  twenty-four  have  free  libraries,  and  the 
same  number  possess  women's  organizations  of  some  sort,  with 
the  Woman's  Christian  Temperance  Union  especially  prominent. 
Village  Improvement  societies  exist  in  nine  localities;  one  of  them 
is  reported  to  have  restricted  its  activities  to  cutting  down  a  few 
weeds  in  a  street  last  summer. 

One  of  the  difficulties  is  to  persuade  the  churches  that  they 
have  any  special  duty  to  the  outlying  districts  or  for  the  social 
betterment  of  the  community  at  large.  Investigation  revealed 
the  fact  that  a  considerable  number  of  churches  maintain  extension 
activities,  consisting  principally  of  district  schoolhouse  meetings. 
Twenty-six  churches  regularly  sustain  prayer-meetings  in  cottages 
or  schoolhouses  or  both.  Seven  carry  on  Sunday  schools  in  addi- 
tion. Several  pastors  take  occasion  to  testify  to  the  value  of  the 
Sunday  school  department.  One  busy  pastor  finds  time  for  a 
weekly  Bible  class  at  different  houses.  Public  conveyance  to 
church  on  Sunday  is  provided  in  one  place.  Two  have  successful 
boys'  camps  in  the  summer. 

With  regard  to  social  activity  for  the  benefit  of  the  community, 
it  is  usually  the  case  that  individual  members  rather  than  the 
church  as  an  organization  take  part.  Most  of  the  social  under- 
takings of  the  church  are  for  its  own  members.  A  men's  club  is 
fairly  common,  less  often  one  for  boys.  Several  churches  provide 
facilities  for  athletics.  Of  course  there  are  "sewing  circles," 
but  clubs  for  women  or  girls  are  infrequent.     Two  churches  main- 

9 


tain  social  study  clubs,  two  a  current  events  club,  one  a  dramatic 
club,  several  musical  societies.  Church  libraries  and  reading- 
rooms  prove  popular.  In  one  place  churches  unite  to  maintain  a 
nursing  association  in  aid  of  the  sick;  in  another  the  Baptists  carry 
on  a  sewing-school,  and  the  Episcopalians  a  social  settlement  in  a 
Negro  district. 

While  it  is  not  possible  to  give  very  conclusive  figures  as  to 
conditions  all  over  New  England,  these  reports  are  sufficiently 
representative  to  warrant  the  following  conclusions: 

1.  It  is  clear  from  the  small  number  of  replies  received  and 
the  quality  of  the  work  done  generally  that  there  is  a  deplorable 
indifference  on  the  part  of  ministers  to  the  opportunity  for  larger 
and  more  aggressive  work,  and  where  there  is  genuine  interest 
there  appears  a  lack  of  understanding  of  method  that  indicates 
great  need  of  better  training  for  country  ministers. 

2.  It  is  most  encouraging  that  there  is  a  nucleus  of  ministers 
who  are  genuinely  in  earnest  and  desirous  of  finding  a  way  to,  do 
more.  Around  this  nucleus  might  be  built  up  a  new  and  larger 
work  for  the  rural  churches. 

3.  The  small  attendance  and  stationary  membership  of  the 
churches  indicates  the  need  of  a  religious  awakening  of  the  average 
New  England  community. 

4.  There  is  need  of  the  elimination  of  some  churches,  but 
local  cooperation  in  a  forward  campaign  is  needed  still  more. 

5.  The  social  leadership  of  the  community  has  passed  largely 
into  the  hands  of  other  social  organizations.  There  is  great  need 
of  well-planned  social  effort  by  the  church. 

6.  The  church  is  not  reaching  special  classes. 

7.  The  church  is  not  reaching  the  community  frontier. 


10 


THE  AWAKENING   OF  THE   THEOLOGICAL   SCHOOLS. 

BY  REV.  J.  N.  PARDEE,  BOLTON,  MASS. 

When  I  found  this  subject  assigned  to  me  I  wrote  to  a  number  of 
the  leading  theological  schools  for  information.  Replies  received 
indicate  that  all  the  schools  are  giving  consideration  to  the  advisa- 
bility of  some  special  instruction  adapted  to  the  peculiar  condi- 
tions the  ministry  faces  in  rural  communities. 

This  consideration  seems  to  be  a  part  of  a  new  emphasis  being 
put  upon  the  practical  side  of  the  training  of  students  for  general 
service  to  society. 

A  realizing  sense  of  certain  sociological  differences  between 
urban  and  rural  conditions  is  so  new  that  the  most  of  the  schools 
have  as  yet  done  little  more  than  to  survey  the  ground,  with  a 
view  to  laying  out  lines  of  future  procedure. 

Certain  schools,  notably  those  of  Newton  and  Hartford,  have 
already  instituted  courses  of  lectures  on  rural  sociology  and  the 
special  needs  of  the  country  churches.  I  have  myself  had  the 
honor  of  speaking  to  the  students  of  the  Harvard,  Andover,  and 
Meadville  schools.  At  present  there  is  little  to  report  except  a 
decided  interest  in  the  subject,  both  upon  the  part  of  the  faculties 
and  the  students,  that  promises  results.  A  number  of  students 
with  a  true  missionary  spirit,  have  indicated  a  purpose  to  seek 
country  parishes. 

Perhaps  I  can  do  no  better  than  to  call  attention  briefly  to  a 
few  points  that  should  not  be  overlooked,  and  to  certain  needs. 

In  the  discussion  of  rural  conditions  I  see  a  danger  in  generaliz- 
ing from  insufficient  data.  There  may  be  isolated  communities 
that  can  be  called  "degenerate"  fairly,  but  I  have  been  unable 
to  find  any  community  that  can  be  so  stigmatized.  As  Mr. 
Anderson  has  pointed  out,  there, are  communities,  even  in  New 
England,  where  the  church,  with  its  moral  influences,  never  did 
gain  a  foothold.  A  careful  study  of  the  "depleted"  towns  of 
Massachusetts  that  I  have  made,  convinces  me  that  the  economic 
conditions  have  steadily  improved  with  a  decline  of  the  population, 

11 


and  most  men  of  sixty  years  of  age  agree  with  me  that  the  moral 
condition  of  those  towns  is  much  better  than  it  was  half  a  century 
ago.  Just  how  far  this  will  apply  to  the  northern  New  England 
States  I  cannot  say  with  certainty.  There  is  danger  too  of  under- 
estimating certain  forces  that  are  at  work,  such  as  the  improvements 
in  agriculture,  the  close  touch  of  the  farmers  with  the  agricultural 
colleges  and  experiment  stations,  the  generally  high  order  of 
intelligence  of  the  rural  population,  the  breadth  of  information,  the 
shrewd  judgment  that  adapts  means  to  ends,  and  the  real  appre- 
ciation of  the  best  things  that  is  evident,  though  often  handicapped 
by  narrow  economic  margins  and  lack  of  generous  culture.  And 
it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  within  two  decades  a  practical 
revolution  has  been  taking  place  in  the  rural  school  system. 

The  common  opinion  that  the  draft  of  population  has  taken 
away  from  the  depleted  towns  the  best  blood,  leaving  behind  the 
old,  weak,  and  inefficient,  is  not  justified  by  the  facts.  I  have 
treated  this  subject  to  some  extent  in  an  article  soon  to  appear 
in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  and  will  pass  it  by  now. 

The  resources  of  the  country  are  by  no  means  exhausted.  But 
they  call  for  the  best  men  to  work  them. 

The  country  churches  need  men  of  capabilities  of  a  high  order; 
educated  men,  men  of  the  missionary  spirit;  but  in  putting  empha- 
sis upon  the  needs  of  an  all  round  equipment,  there  is  danger  of 
overlooking  the  importance  of  qualifications  that  have  always 
stood  at  the  front  in  the  training  of  ministers. 

The  young  man  who  looks  countryward  for  his  field  of  labor 
should  never  forget  that  the  primary  work  of  the  Christian  minister, 
in  the  country  as  well  as  in  the  city,  is  to  call  the  attention  of  men, 
women,  and  children  to  the  Eternal  Realities;  to  translate  the 
terms  of  a  sane,  vital  philosophy  of  the  universe  into  the  terms  of 
the  common  thought  and  life;  to  find  in  high  thoughts  of  the 
moral  government  of  God  motives  for  the  conduct  of  human 
beings  in  their  relations  to  one  another;  to  stimulate  high  ambi- 
tions, clarify  thought,  widen  knowledge,  give  hope  in  discourage- 
ment, and  soothe  the  sorrows  of  the  afflicted.  To  enable  him  to 
do  this  in  the  most  effective  way,  all  is  fish  that  comes  to  his  net; 
but  how  far  he  shall  go  to  fish  in  other  than  religious  waters  de- 
pends upon  the  circumstances  of  his  environment,  and  the  char- 
acter of  his  tackle. 

Some  of  our  most  successful,   most   inspiring,   most   helpful 

12 


country  ministers,  who  have  molded  the  character  of  rising 
generations,  have  been  saintly  men,  who  knew  little  about  common 
affairs,  and  could  handle  no  tool  heavier  than  a  pen;  but  men  who 
knew  much  about  the  deep  things  of  God,  and  the  aspirations  of 
the  human  soul;  men  of  high  scholarship,  profound  thought,  and 
spiritual  vision;  men  who  loved  the  people,  and  whom  the  people 
loved. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that  the  coign  of  vantage  of  the 
country  minister  is  the  pulpit.  It  is  here  that  the  candidate  is 
"sized  up."  He  is  called  almost  exclusively  upon  his  character 
as  a  preacher;  and  the  keenest,  shrewdest  critics  he  will  ever  face 
he  stands  before  in  the  country  pulpits.  Country  congregations, 
as  a  rule,  will  forgive  neglect  and  shortcomings  in  all  other 
departments  of  his  work  sooner  than  failures  in  the  pulpit.  They 
will  go  into  their  pockets  far  deeper  for  a  live  preacher  than  for 
a  good  social  worker,  teacher  of  civics,  organizer  of  clubs,  or 
even  for  a  good  pastor,  though  all  these  things  are  highly  appre- 
ciated. 

I  want  to  make  this  point  clear,  because  there  is  an  impression 
abroad  that  almost  any  kind  of  preaching  will  "go"  in  the  country. 
Poor  preaching  does  go;  many  cheap  things  go  for  the  simple 
reason  that  the  people  of  a  poor  church  feel  their  inability  to  pay 
for  anything  better;  but  the  man  who  lets  himself  down  from  his 
very  best,  be  he  a  preacher,  singer,  or  entertainer,  through  a  vain 
impression  that  his  audience  does  not  know  a  good  thing  when  it 
hears  it,  makes  the  mistake  of  his  life.  The  farther  back  you  go 
into  pioneer  regions,  the  more  really  educated  men  and  women  are 
you  likely  to  meet.  I  know  how  summer  visitors  bring  back  to 
the  city  stories  of  rural  stupidity,  but  summer  visitors,  like  the 
novelists,  are  apt  to  generalize  from  incidental  cases,  and  to  look 
through  glasses  colored  by  their  own  abnormal  aestheticism.  It 
is  a  mistake,  too,  for  a  student  to  get  the  idea  that  country  congre- 
gations call  for  extemporaneous  preaching.  There  is  only  one  safe 
rule,  and  that  is  to  do  the  best  you  can. 

The  crying  need  of  the  country  towns  today  is  not  social  ser- 
vice so  much  as  a  revival  of  religion;  a  sane,  rational  revival  of 
religion  that  will  open  up  the  springs  of  life  and  inspire  the  develop- 
ment of  character;  a  type  of  religion  that  can  be  formulated  by  a 
penetrating  study  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount. 

Given  such  a  revival,  social  service  will  follow  as  naturally  as 

13 


a  stream  flows  from  its  fountain  head.  The  fine  dream  of  the  good 
Bishop  of  New  Hampshire  will  come  true. 

I  would  not  be  understood  as  undervaluing  social  service. 
I  simply  say  "amen"  to  the  Bishop,  and  "God  bless  you!"  to 
Brother  Wilson. 

Another  point  that  needs  attention  by  the  theological  schools  is 
instruction  in  ecclesiastical  law.  Many  of  our  churches  of  the 
Congregational  order  are  in  a  condition  of  legal  anarchy,  and  con- 
sequently of  business  inefficiency.  The  great  numbers  of  minis- 
ters and  standing  committees  who  do  not  know  that  the  statutes 
of  the  states  furnish  the  constitutions  of  their  societies  is  simply 
amazing.  Many  of  our  old  parishes  have  not  done  business  legally 
for  years,  and  do  not  know  where  the  title  to  their  property  lies. 
The  courts  dread  nothing  so  much  as  '  'a  church  case."  Business 
methods  are  notoriously  lax,  and  more  ministers  lose  their  pulpits 
on  account  of  this  laxity  than  on  account  of  all  other  causes  com- 
bined.    Here  is  a  direct  challenge  to  the  theological  schools. 

Finally,  there  is  no  situation  that  requires  more  "tact,"  or 
that  calls  for  more  of  the  wisdom  of  the  serpent  and  the  harmless- 
ness  of  the  dove  than  the  position  of  pastor  of  a  country  church. 
It  would  hardly  be  just  to  faculties  of  our  theological  schools  to 
expect  them  to  lay  out  lines  of  training  when  their  beginnings  run 
back  and  their  efficiency  runs  forward  in  qualities  of  personality 
for  which  they  cannot  be  held  responsible. 


14 


AN  IDEAL  OF  COUNTRY  CHURCH  SETTLEMENT 

WORK. 

BY  RT.  REV.  EDWARD  M.  PARKER,  BISHOP  COADJUTOR  OF  NEW 

HAMPSHIRE. 

I  must  begin  with  a  word  of  personal  explanation  of  the  rather 
ambitious  scheme  of  country  work  which  my  title  suggests.  I  was 
for  twenty-six  years  a  teacher  in  St.  Paul's  School,  Concord, 
New  Hampshire,  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  minister  in  charge 
of  a  small  country  church  more  than  five  miles  distant,  and  for 
twelve  years  of  this  period  a  pluralist  in  charge  of  a  second  congre- 
gation in  a  village  ten  miles  from  my  front  door.  My  parish 
stretched  as  far  over  a  thinly  settled  district  as  I  could  travel. 
When  I  wished  to  indulge  in  tall  talk  it  was  my  custom  to  speak 
of  the  area  of  square  miles  that  I  could  call  my  own,  or  the  number 
of  times  I  had  driven  across  the  continent  without  leaving  my  five 
New  Hampshire  townships,  and  to  allude  to  the  small  classes  pre- 
sented for  confirmation  at  the  Bishop's  visits  as  being  so  many 
miles  long  rather  than  as  containing  so  many  individuals.  There 
was  no  large  centre  in  my  field  of  work;  my  first  church  was  in  a 
part  of  the  towns  separated  by  two  miles  with  a  long  hill  from  the 
two  churches  at  "the  Centre"  with  its  eighty  people,  and  the 
second  had  to  be  built  in  the  little  railroad  village  where  it  was 
sadly  impossible  to  buy  or  to  repair  either  of  the  disused  and  decay- 
ing church  buildings  which  it  contained,  because  one  could  get  no 
deed  from  "the  Church,"  "the  Society,"  the  scattered  pew  owners, 
and  the  unknown  numerous  descendants  of  the  original  donor. 
Some  of  the  difficulties  of  rural  work  were  therefore  unfelt  by  me, 
a  non-resident  who  did  not  depend  on  his  people  for  financial  sup- 
port and  social  intercourse,  since  my  work  as  a  teacher  gave  me 
fellowship  and  money  to  live  on  in  a  long  pastorate,  wherein  I  had 
the  intense  satisfaction  of  knowing  a  small  area  and  its  problems 
intimately,  and  the  joy  of  such  ties  as  the  christening  of  the  children 
of  people  whom  I  had  married  and  whom  I  had  known  as  babies 

15 


playing  in  the  dooryard  or  on  the  floors  of  the  country  kitchens 
or  parlors  where  I  made  my  first  calls  on  their  fathers  and  mothers. 

Out  of  my  experience  has  grown  an  ideal  of  the  way  to  minister 
to  a  tract  of  country  with  a  small  town  or  two,  with  a  few  villages 
with  tiny  hamlets  or  clusters  of  farm  houses,  with  perhaps  a  five 
years'  lumber  camp  community,  some  summer  boarding  houses, 
a  small  summer  hotel,  and  with  many  isolated  farms  dotted  here 
and  there  along  the  country  roads.  In  planning  with  my  fellow 
workers,  I  am  very  apt  to  clarify  their  ideas  and  my  own  by  asking 
first,  "  What  would  you  have  if  you  could  do  just  what  you  wished? " 
and  then,  "How  can  we  begin  in  some  practical  way  with  our 
inadequate  resources  of  workers  and  money  to  do  a  part  of  what 
we  desire?" 

So  here  is  my  vision  of  what  I  would  do  if  I  could  have  my 
wishes  carried  out,  a  vision  woven  partly  of  accomplished  facts  in 
work  done  in  my  square  miles  of  country  or  by  others  elsewhere  in 
New  Hampshire,  and  partly  of  rainbow  colors  not  yet  brought  down 
to  earth. 

In  the  town  of  A  is  the  central  Home  of  the  Workers,  the 
Country  Church  Settlement  House.  It  is  a  village  house  made 
over  a  little,  a  country  parsonage,  or  an  old  tavern  on  a  disused 
turnpike  ruined  by  the  coming  of  the  railroads,  such  as  I  know 
well  in  one  town,  or  such  as  has  been  redeemed  in  another  to  serve 
as  a  centre  of  Christian  work.  I  always  like  to  repeat  the  story 
told  me,  that  in  a  drunken  brawl  in  the  unregenerate  days  of  the 
latter  that  are  past,  they  saved  a  man  from  being  done  to  death  by 
throwing  him  out  of  a  second  story  window.  If  the  Central  Home 
in  the  village  of  four  or  five  hundred  people  is  an  old  tavern,  its 
dance  hall  will  give  the  assembly  room  needed  for  social  gatherings ; 
if  the  Home  is  a  smaller  house,  such  a  hall  must  somehow  be  other- 
wise obtained  for  our  ideal  place  of  work.  And  then,  close  at 
hand,  must  be  the  village  church  for  the  central  scene  of  effort  of  a 
Country  Church  Settlement. 

And  in  the  Home  are  the  headquarters  of  the  workers,  the  first 
being  the  Senior  Parson  and  his  wife  and  children.  He  should 
be  an  experienced  man  in  middle  life.  Second  is  the  Junior  Parson, 
a  young  man  not  long  from  the  Theological  Seminary;  he  will 
probably  soon  need  a  separate  house  for  a  young  wife,  since  young 
parsons  and  young  army  officers  set  an  example,  good  or  bad,  of 
early  marriage  on  small  means.     I  believe  with  all  my  heart  that 

16 


nine  times  out  of  ten  the  country  parson  is  a  far  more  useful  man 
if  he  has  the  blessing  and  the  strength  of  a  loving  wife,  but  in  our 
ideal  band  of  workers  the  Junior  Parson  might  perhaps  wait  as 
men  of  other  professions  do  for  this  happiness,  till  he  has  put  in 
a  few  years  of  hard  bachelor  work.  The  third  man  would  be  a 
Layman,  who  was  ready  for  awhile  to  teach  in  the  village  school; 
and  the  last  member  of  the  group  of  workers  should  be  the  District 
Nurse,  whose  duty  it  should  be  (as  was  the  case  in  a  well  planned 
piece  of  country  work  near  Brattleboro),  not  so  much  to  wear 
herself  out  nursing  every  sick  man  and  woman  in  her  district,  as 
to  train  and  organize  all  the  kindly  effort  of  watchers  and  neighbors 
whom  the  country  should  supply  in  the  present  as  in  the  past. 
She  will  be  the  right  hand  of  the  village  doctor  in  the  desperate 
cases  which  he  has  sometimes  to  face  almost  unaided  with  heroic 
self-sacrifice. 

The  Settlement  may  lodge  a  Normal  School  girl  who  has  just 
come  to  town  to  care  for  a  small  district  school,  and  there  will  often 
be  visitors  who  pay  their  board  and  give  their  work.  But  what  a 
body  of  workers  you  have  planned  for  your  village  group  of  a  few 
hundred  people!  My  dear  listeners  to  a  dream,  it  is  the  business 
of  our  Settlement  to  own  a  whole  countryside ! 

I  am  writing  this  ideal  with  a  road  map  before  me,  and  work 
out  the  details  of  my  scheme  on  a  real  section  in  New  Hampshire. 
And  so  I  can  say  that  three  miles  away  from  my  centre  A,  is  the 
village  of  B,  to  reach  which  I  pass  a  lumber  camp  hamlet  C,  two 
miles  from  our  centre.  Three  miles  beyond  B  is  a  small  village  D, 
with  a  church  and  schoolhouse.  And  starting  from  A  on  a  new 
road,  two  miles  south  is  the  village  of  E  with  its  seldom-used  church 
building;  one  mile  beyond  it  is  the  tiny  hamlet  of  F,  and  two  miles 
still  farther  away,  on  the  same  south  road,  is  the  village  of  G  with 
its  disused  church.  We  can  go  eight  miles  from  our  centre,  south- 
east by  train,  to  a  hamlet  K  with  nothing  better  than  a  school- 
house  for  a  meeting  place.  Five  miles  of  good  up-and-down-hill 
driving  will  bring  our  workers  to  a  small  village  H,  and  six  miles 
due  north  lies  its  fellow,  I,  its  fellow  except  that  the  quiet  of  H 
among  its  hills  is  contrasted  with  the  new  paper  mill  with  its  thirty 
or  forty  hands,  which  has  brought  new  life  and  some  foreigners  to  I. 

Eight  miles  northwest  by  rail  is  a  village  of  five  or  six  hundred 
people,  which  is  a  little  outside  our  immediate  field  of  work,  and 
where  we  could  not,  perhaps,  be  able  to  think  of  doing  social  or 

17 


religious  work.  It  is  included  in  the  outside  region  with  its  3000 
people  who  live  just  beyond  our  immediate  field  of  work.  Our 
field  has  today  ten  church  buildings,  two  libraries,  seven  summer 
boarding  houses  or  small  hotels,  a  good  many  little  mills  doing 
rather  a  poor  and  failing  business,  and  about  2000  people.  I  am 
supposing  that  our  workers  supply  in  part  that  which  is  now  done 
by  resident  ministers,  in  this  home  field,  many  of  whose  people  live 
on  the  isolated  farms  all  up  and  down  the  many  roads  that  it  con- 
tains. 

Our  workers  must  begin  by  getting  to  know  every  family  in  this 
section.  The  Senior  Parson  will  have  his  special  field;  to  the 
Junior  Parson  will  be  assigned  a  particular  section  for  which  he  will 
be  responsible,  since  Americans  desire  to  be  independent  if  possible 
in  their  work,.  The  Lay  Worker  might  take  a  small  hamlet  or  two, 
to  relieve  the  others,  or  better,  might  be  the  helper  of  the  Senior 
in  his  central  district.  Country  people  in  New  England  are  always 
glad  to  receive  calls,  and  if  one  has  a  little  common  sense  and  is 
courteous,  the  country  parson  can  be  sure  of  a  warm  welcome. 
It  is  well  not  to  begin  as  I  did,  the  afternoon  before  Thanksgiving 
Day,  when  housewives  are  not  altogether  idle;  but  I  think  I  gained 
as  much  as  I  lost  by  the  touch  of  Yankee  humor  with  which  many 
women  laughed  at  the  raw  inexperience  of  a  young  man  who  had 
forgotten  that  pumpkin  pies  cannot  be  gathered  from  November 
chilled  appletrees  in  the  back  yard.  I  shall  never  forget  the  digni- 
fied cordiality  with  which  I  was  met  several  years  later  on  by  Mr.  Q., 
who  had  been  told  by  a  mutual  friend  that '  'the  minister  was  going 
to  call  on  him,"  and  who  had  compared  the  minister  to  the  moulding 
machine  in  the  village  furniture  shop,  which  he  feared  '  'because  you 
did  n't  know,  Edgar,  what  it  was  going  to  do."  Warned  by  the 
delighted  Edgar,  the  Moulding  Machine  and  Mr.  Q.  both  avoided 
religious  topics  and  began  their  acquaintance  with  grave  converse 
about  the  proposed  village  creamery,  the  likelihood  of  an  early 
frost,  and  the  comparative  advantages  of  the  hill  and  valley  roads. 
And  so  our  Settlement  workers  will  first  of  all  make  at  every  house 
the  long  chatty  calls  which  will  make  them  acquainted  with  every 
family  and  individual,  and  the  card  catalogue  will  speedily  have  its 
record  of  names,  ages,  and  religious  connections.  The  District 
Nurse  and  the  Doctor  will  bring  the  Settlement  into  closer  touch 
with  house  after  house  as  sickness  visits  them,  and  the  Parsons  will 
find  it  increasingly  easy  to  minister  religiously  by  simple  sick-room 

18 


prayers  to  such  families,  while  the  steady  work  of  public  worship, 
preaching,  and  Sunday  School  and  Home  Lessons  for  isolated  fami- 
lies will  slowly  tell  on  the  community  as  people  get  to  know  the 
minister  personally,  and  to  return  the  compliment  of  social  calls  at 
the  houses  by  occasional,  and  increasingly  regular,  visits  to  the 
Church  or  School  House  service. 

I  should  enjoy  drawing  up  a  schedule  of  work  for  Messrs. 
X,  Y,  Z  at  all  the  alphabetical  points  which  I  have  named  earlier. 
My  theory  is  that  at  many  of  those  far  distant  from  the  central 
house  the  parson  should  have  a  room  in  some  respectable  house, 
where  he  can  spend  the  night  and  leave  his  books  and  other  belong- 
ings. It  should  be  simply  furnished  with  a  bed,  a  table,  a  few 
chairs,  and  an  air-tight  stove,  and  there  should  be  in  the  barn  a 
stall  for  the  horse,  as  there  is  a  place  in  the  house  for  his  master. 
Church  services,  schoolhouse  services,  house  services,  short  sick- 
room prayers,  all  these  our  workers  are  to  provide  for  the  whole 
countryside.  The  house  wedding  and  the  leisurely  country  funeral 
give  one  ever  new  opportunities  to  reach  and  to  touch  people  who 
are  slow  to  come  to  church.  "  The  house  going  parson  will  make 
the  church  going  people,"  as  the  old  proverb  says,  not  forgetting 
that  another  proverb  bids  us,  '  'When  you  go  to  the  city,  take  your 
best  coat;  when  you  go  to  the  country,  take  your  best  sermon." 

But  in  my  group  of  buildings  at  the  Settlement  House  I  have 
forgotten  to  speak  of  the  stable!  I  ought  perhaps  in  an  up-to-date 
ideal  to  imagine  a  small  automobile  in  place  of  one  of  the  horses 
which  the  country  parson  must  keep.  I  know  country  ministers 
who  do  splendid  work  on  "shank's  mare,"  or  on  bicycles,  and  one 
whose  parishioners  often  loaned  him  '  'their  teams,"  but  it  is  really 
a  criminal  waste  of  force  that  the  countryside  should  have  a  min- 
ister unsupplied  with  such  an  assistant  as  "Major-General  Jim 
Parker,"  who  after  years  of  faithful  service  ended  life  with  a  set  of 
rather  alarming  fits,  or  like  the  four-legged  gentleman  variously 
called  "Dobbin"  and  "the  Arch  Deacon,"  who  recently  did  189 
miles  of  travel,  bringing  Christmas  cheer  along  the  winter  roads 
of  three  northern  towns. 

I  have  begun  with  the  religious  work,  because  that  is  the  special 
business  of  a  religious  settlement  and  of  a  minister,  but  social  work 
is  a  help  to  religious  success,  especially  if  there  be  a  thorough  con- 
viction that  it  is  worth  doing  just  for  its  own  sake.  My  experience 
is  that  in  country  social  work  play  comes  before  serious  intentions; 

19 


I  have  a  great  respect  for  the  old  church  sociable,  if  some  sort  of  a 
programme  can  be  provided ;  the  songs  which  I  have  heard  are  not 
up  to  those  in  Denmark  of  which  Professor  Rasmussen  spoke  last 
night,  but  our  ideal  Settlement  could  easily  get  chorus  singing  by  a 
hall  full  of  people  if  it  printed  a  few  hundred  pamphlets  of  patriotic 
and  simple  popular  songs,  such  as  "The  Red,  White  and  Blue," 
"The  Star  Spangled  Banner,"  "Auld  Lang  Syne,"  and  the 
"  Swanee  River,"  and  I  know  of  effective  lumber  camp  words  set 
to  the  tune  of  "  My  Old  Kentucky  Home."  Social  workers  gave 
one  set  of  children  in  a  mountain  district  the  first  Christmas  tree, 
and  the  first  picnic,  they  had  ever  had.  One  of  the  most  Christian 
meetings  that  I  ever  attended  was  a  village  Christmas  tree  (one  of 
a  series  managed  on  an  undenominational  basis  alternately  by  the 
ladies  of  the  Baptist  and  Episcopal  churches),  at  which  one  heard 
quaint  old  English  Christmas  carols,  magazine  songs  and  recita- 
tions, the  words  of  the  Christmas  story  from  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Luke  recited  by  rows  of  little  boys  in  knickerbockers,  and  by  little 
girls  in  white  dresses  and  pigtails,  and  really  lovely  French  chansons 
about  Christmas,  sung  by  the  Roman  Catholic  children  from  a 
lumber  mill  hamlet,  who  had  been  drilled  and  trained  by  a  French 
Canadian  girl.  It  did  not  make  our  meeting  less  Christian  that 
I  had  succeeded,  in  spite  of  profound  anxieties  on  my  part  and 
dismal  prophesies  of  failure  on  the  part  of  others,  in  brewing  strong 
coffee  in  a  wash  boiler,  and  that,  careful  to  make  the  French  Cana- 
dians feel  that  they  were  not  asked  to  do  anything  in  which  the 
others  were  not  ready  to  take  a  hand,  that  I  had  stood  next  to  a 
woodchopper's  wife,  washing  coffee  mugs  in  the  blacksmith's 
kitchen.  The  Christian  Settlement  worker  must  never  forget 
the  native  New  Zealand  proverb :  '  'Gentleman  gentleman  does  not 
mind  what  he  does,"  and  that  "it  is  pig  gentleman  who  is  very 
particular." 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  our  ideal  Settlement  workers  will  not  be 
prevented  by  Church  traditions  from  killing  out  or  preventing 
the  harmful  public  dances  which  sometimes  injure  a  country  com- 
munity, by  promoting  or  encouraging  well  chaperoned  dancing 
parties  which  break  up  at  a  reasonably  early  hour.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  have  the  good  girls  and  the  wild  girls  both  come  to  feel 
that  by  far  the  pleasantest  parties  are  those  held  at  home  or  at  the 
Settlement  Hall,  and  that  one  need  not  break  bounds  to  have  a 
good  time.     Anyone  who  has  not  seen  a  Country  Promenade  led 

20 


by  a  couple  of  clever  young  people  who  invent  new  and  surprising 
figures,  for  the  older  folk  and  the  children  and  the  young  people 
who  follow  their  lead,  has  something  still  to  live  for. 

I  have  left  myself  little  room  to  dwell  on  some  of  the  more 
serious  sides  of  my  ideal  piece  of  country  work.  As  one  gains  the 
confidence  and  the  warm  friendship  of  a  countryside,  clubs  for 
reading,  for  study,  for  magazine  subscriptions,  for  the  promotion 
of  handicraft,  can  be  organized.  Weaving  and  rug  making  may 
increase  local  wealth;  classes  in  embroidery  and  music  and  lan- 
guage may  be  started  and  maintained.  There  is  no  limit  to  the 
leadership  that  may  be  developed  among  the  neighbors,  or  that 
may  be  given  by  the  workers  who  have  become  friends.  And 
here  perhaps  is  the  chance  to  draw  together  the  summer  visitors 
and  the  twelve  month  residents.  Summer  residents  and  those 
who  indignantly  refuse  patronage  and  often  look  suspiciously  for 
condescension  where  it  does  not  exist,  can  sometimes  be  drawn 
together  by  work  for  others. 

And  there  are  the  country  schools.  I  have  known  one  country 
minister  who  has  set  our  Settlement  workers  a  splendid  example  of 
sympathetic  cooperation  with  the  teachers  and  the  leaders  in  the 
community  for  improved  methods  of  instruction,  by  starting 
patriotic  courses  of  simple  civics  and  by  prizes  given  at  social 
gatherings  of  parents  and  children  in  the  schoolhouses.  It  will  be 
a  clear  duty  and  a  keen  pleasure  for  our  workers  to  promote  nature 
studies  and  vocational  courses  of  study,  to  work  at  the  problem  of 
ruralizing  and  improving  the  schools  of  their  district.  Village 
Improvement  Societies  and  School  Gardens  once  started  by  inter- 
ested workers  may  be  taken  up  by  the  town;  a  model  school  term's 
work,  at  the  expense  of  the  Settlement,  may  easily  bring  in  others 
at  the  public  expense;  a  worker  may  become  an  official  on  the 
School  Board. 

And  as  tastes  and  leisure  permit,  the  Settlement  gardens  and 
stables  may  become  centres  of  "agricultural  demonstration." 
Big  strawberries  in  the  parson's  garden,  or  well  sprayed,  well 
trimmed  apple  trees,  will  suggest  possibilities  unthought  of  before. 
Countrymen  can  understand  the  practical  advantages  of  reasonable 
management  of  woodlots  or  of  tree  planting,  if  the  management  be 
reasonable.  I  know  one  parson  who  has,  and  who  sells,  extra  good 
fresh  eggs  all  the  year  round,  and  another  who  has  one  of  the  best 
gardens  in  town  because  he  buys  good  seeds,  and  has  by  careful 

21 


management  of  a  sandy  soil  made  it  capable  of  large  returns. 
Then  there  are  lectures  and  conferences,  carried  on  independently 
or  in  cooperation  with  the  Grange,  the  Teachers'  Institutes,  or 
the  State  College  at  Durham.  I  should  get  Professor  Rasmussen 
to  talk  about  milk  tests  and  cow  tests,  and  Mr.  Hardy  of  Hollis 
to  tell  us  how  he  beat  all  New  England  with  Baldwin  apples  from 
an  old  orchard  which  he  had  pruned  and  sprayed,  and  how  he  thus 
won  the  Governor  Draper  silver  cup.  Much  may  be  done  in 
cooperation,  and  something  also  independently,  by  the  help  that 
can  be  obtained  because  a  band  of  workers  and  their  friends  have  a 
wider  acquaintance  and  better  financial  resources  than  a  single 
minister. 

But  why  such  an  elaborate  piece  of  machinery  for  country  work? 
First,  because  it  presupposes  the  serious  effort  to  provide  finan- 
cially for  serious  work.  Second,  because  it  provides  for  an 
avoidance  of  the  loneliness  and  isolation  which  come  to  the  soli- 
tary country  parson.  With  associates  in  work,  '  'his  strength  is  as 
the  strength  of  ten,"  because  four  or  five  people  are  associated  with 
him.  Third,  because  it  provides  for  a  continuance  of  effort  in 
work,  and  prevents  the  short  pastorates  that  are  the  curse  of  much 
country  work.  The  Head  stays  on  and  there  is  a  succession  of 
helpers  with  shorter  terms  of  work,  or  the  Head  leaves  and  the 
Junior  Parson  steps  into  his  place,  already  knowing  the  field  and 
known  in  it.  Fourth,  because  the  Settlement  can  own,  or  borrow, 
or  rent,  such  tools  as  lanterns,  maps  and  books.  Fifth,  because 
it  can  form  a  centre  to  utilize  temporary  workers  and  helpers  in 
summer,  autumn,  and  winter,  and  to  train  the  green  city  people 
filled  with  enthusiasm  and  having  only  city  experience,  for  country 
work. 

I  might  have  put  my  Settlement  in  a  New  Hampshire  town 
where  there  is  a  rather  feeble  Academy,  a  skilled  agriculturist, 
and  a  number  of  intelligent  summer  visitors  ready  to  cooperate 
with  our  workers,  or  it  might  take  as  its  field  a  narrow  mountain- 
lined  valley  twenty-one  miles  long  by  a  mile  or  so  broad,  with  many 
villages,  many  lumber  camps  back  among  the  mountains,  many 
summer  visitors,  and  undeveloped  rather  barren  farms. 

Here  is  my  poor  picture  of  Country  Work  as  I  see  it  in  my  fancy, 
and  yet  not  altogether  there,  for  almost  every  detail  is  a  reality 
somewhere,  though  I  have  combined  them  in  an  imaginary  picture 
of  one  locality  where  I  know  every  road.     Christian  courtesy  and 

22 


interest  and  love  can  win  affection  and  cooperation  where  there  is 
no  thought  of  establishing  church  connections;  workers  who  are 
trusted  as  men  and  women  may  become  leaders  in  schools  of 
agriculture  where  they  have  only  an  imperfect  knowledge.  If  one 
knows  country  people  well,  and  enters  into  their  lives  and  cares 
supremely  for  them  personally,  one  may  stimulate  and  lead  them 
into  paths  of  material  progress  where  one  has  never  gone,  and  into 
spiritual  paths  where  one  must  tread  very  humbly  one's  self. 


23 


THE  RURAL  CHURCH  AND  THE  BEAUTIFICATION  OF 

THE  COUNTRY. 

BY   PROFESSOR  ROBERT  J.    SPRAGUE,   UNIVERSITY   OF  MAINE. 

There  are  many  proposed  solutions  of  the  rural  church  prob- 
lems. Some  of  these  require  stronger  preachers,  social  secretaries, 
or  the  reorganization  of  the  religious  forces  which  will  take  much 
time  or  experiment;  but  there  is  one  line  of  activity  which  every 
church  can  adopt,  be  it  rich  or  poor,  large  or  small,  and  it  may 
know  that  its  efforts  will  always  meet  with  public  approval,  if 
exercised  with  wisdom,  and  there  is  no  limit  to  the  improvements 
that  are  possible.  The  rural  church  must  be  more  of  a  generalized 
institution  and  work  for  the  whole  life  and  numerous  interests  of 
the  community  which  it  serves.  Wherever  charitable,  civic, 
literary,  musical,  or  even  recreational  needs  are  apparent  in  the 
rural  community,  the  church  should  stand  ready  to  satisfy  them, 
if  it  be  the  best  agency  available  for  such  work.  The  church  must 
realize  that  all  of  these  interests  are  essential  to  a  well  balanced, 
wholesome  community,  and  all  belong  to  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

The  special  interests  of  the  rural  church  may  best  be  conserved 
by  working  for  the  general  welfare  when  the  need  is  evident.  The 
church  must  cease  struggling  to  save  its  own  life  and  work  for  the 
community  interests,  for  only  thus  can  it  live  and  fulfill  its  vital 
purpose.  The  preacher  is  frequently  the  best  trained  man  in  the 
community,  the  natural  leader,  and  he  must  serve  every  interest 
of  the  Kingdom  according  to  its  need  and  his  power.  The  city 
preacher  can  specialize,  but  the  country  parson  must  be  a  general 
practitioner. 

It  often  takes  a  stronger,  more  all  round  man,  with  more  brains 
and  grace,  to  meet  all  the  needs  of  the  country  parishes  and  get 
success  than  it  does  to  carry  successfully  the  city  church  with  all  its 
helpers  and  stimulating  environment. 

One  of  the  best  influences  for  getting  effective  men  into  the 
rural  churches  is  to  broaden  the  work  in  scope  and  influence  until 

25 


it  becomes  only  a  strong  man's  job,  until  it  appeals  to  the  large 
brained  and  noble  hearted  individuals  with  all  of  its  religious, 
moral,  civic,  and  aesthetic  possibilities. 

The  local  improvement  club,  the  literary  society,  the  grange, 
the  town  offices,  the  children's  organizations  and  athletics,  all 
furnish  collateral  opportunities  for  the  rural  preacher  to  serve  his 
community.  I  wish,  however,  to  speak  of  one  special  interest 
which  is  crying  out  for  attention  and  on  which  the  people  very 
easily  unite,  that  is,  the  beautification  of  the  country  and  the  village. 

Unbeautified  Grounds. 

Many  of  our  village  and  rural  churches  have  no  more  decora- 
tions about  them  than  the  blacksmith  shop  and  the  grocery  store, 
and  yet  within  the  church  the  beauty  of  the  lily  and  the  God  in 
nature  are  supposed  to  be  strong  sentiments  of  Christianity.  If 
the  sermons  are  to  be  judged  by  the  bareness  and  crudeness  of  the 
exterior  of  many  of  our  churches,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that 
people  seek  their  preaching  in  the  mountains  and  on  the  lakes. 
The  Catholic  people  often  show  more  interest  in  the  beauty  of  the 
church  grounds  and  the  general  exterior  than  the  Protestants  do, 
and  their  properties  hold  the  respect  of  their  people. 

Then  there  is  the  old  burying  ground  where  the  hearts  of  so 
many  of  the  people  lie  buried,  it  is  often  left  neglected  and  dilapi- 
dated. In  the  beautifying  of  this  may  be  the  only  way  of  reaching 
some  broken  lives. 

The  next  object  of  aesthetic  interest  should  be  the  country  school 
yard.  The  most  of  these  yards  are  lacking  in  all  the  character- 
istics which  encourage  high  ideals  and  civilized  living.  They  are 
places  where  there  is  no  law,  no  beauty,  nothing  which  appeals  to 
the  esthetic,  the  just,  or  the  civic.  The  children  run  rough  shod 
over  everything  and  learn  to  think  that  bareness,  battered  fences, 
and  crude  liberty  are  the  proper  things,  with  the  result  that  they 
are  liable  to  duplicate  them  in  their  own  homes  and  are  willing  to 
live  in  naked  tenements.  Every  school  yard  should  have  trees, 
shrubbery,  and  flowers,  which  young  America  must  respect  and, 
still  better,  cultivate.  Here  is  a  great  field  waiting  for  workers,  and 
the  men  and  women  of  the  churches  could  do  no  better  than  to  push 
developments  along  this  line.  They  will  find  that  the  people  are 
easily  united  for  such  improvements. 

26 


The  New  England  Trees. 

New  England  is  second  to  none  in  her  wealth  of  flora  for  summer 
scenery,  but  for  winter  landscapes  she  has  the  most  beautiful  trees 
on  the  planet.  Our  rural  people  generally  do  not  realize  the  possi- 
bilities for  unrivaled  beauty  in  the  pines,  spruces,  and  cedars  when 
applied  to  villages  and  country  homesteads.  Hundreds  of  villages 
could  make  themselves  strikingly  beautiful,  winter  and  summer,  by 
taking  advantage  of  their  natural  surroundings  and  decorating 
with  the  native  evergreens.  As  it  is,  we  plant  deciduous  trees 
which  have  nothing  to  present  but  bare  arms  for  seven  months 
of  the  year,  while  we  might  have  that  color  and  warmth  on  the 
groundwork  of  snow  which  would  give  us  unparalleled  winter 
beauty.  Many  of  our  parks  have  nothing  but  cold  shivering  sticks 
in  the  winter,  although  they  might  be  warmed  up  and  protected 
by  living  evergreens.  The  land  values  about  many  a  park  can  be 
raised  greatly  by  the  use  of  well  grouped  cedars  and  spruces,  for 
where  bleak  desolation  has  held  sway  in  winter,  beauty  and  color 
may  reign  supreme.  The  soft,  waving,  murmuring  pine  which 
turns  every  breeze  into  music,  towering  alone  over  other  evergreens 
gives  a  most  striking  effect;  while  spruces  grouped  for  backgrounds 
and  cedars  (arborvitae)  grouped  for  foreground  complete  the  com- 
bination for  charming  New  England  scenery.  In  summer  there 
is  hardly  any  effect  equal  to  flowering  shrubbery  against  a  solid 
background  of  evergreen,  but  these  settings  are  used  very  little. 

The  Spirea  Van  Houtii  and  the  Hydrangea  Grandiflora  make 
beautiful  combinations  with  evergreen  backgrounds,  they  can  be 
used  separately  against  the  green  or  they  can  be  combined.  When 
they  are  grown  together  the  spireas  give  bloom  in  the  early  summer 
and  the  hydrangeas  in  the  late  summer  and  fall.  The  use  of  the 
green  background  permits  the  use  of  a  thousand  effective  combi- 
nations, but  those  mentioned  above  are  perennial  and  good  for 
permanent  landscapes. 

How  to  Transplant  Evergreens. 

The  transplanting  of  evergreens  is  simple  and  safe  if  done  in 
accordance  with  their  nature.  If  the  roots  of  the  tree  are  allowed 
to  dry  the  resinous  substances  harden  and  the  tree  cannot  live. 
Because  of  this   fact  it  has  been   considered   more  difficult  to 

27 


change  evergreens  than  maples  or  elms,  but  the  spruces,  pines, 
and  cedars  are  really  very  tough  for  transplanting  if  the  roots 
be  carefully  treated.  It  is  always  best  to  take  up  some  earth  with 
the  roots.  A  tree  five  or  six  feet  tall  should  have  a  lump  two  or 
three  feet  across  removed  with  it,  the  more  earth  the  safer,  smaller 
trees  of  course  requiring  less.  It  is  always  best  in  changing  any 
tree  to  take  a  good  lot  of  its  native  soil.  Transplanting  can  be 
done  in  the  spring  with  perfect  success.  Last  spring  I  changed 
some  evergreens  of  every  kind  and  no  tree  died  or  even  seemed  to 
know  that  it  had  been  moved,  judging  from  the  normal  growth 
which  all  the  trees  made  during  the  summer.  If  large  trees  are  to 
be  moved,  as  they  may  well  be,  the  best  time  is  in  the  fall  after  the 
ground  has  frozen  enough  to  hold  the  soil  together.  Dig  around 
the  tree  before  the  ground  freezes  too  much,  leaving  a  radius  of 
soil  according  to  its  size,  and  after  the  earth  is  well  frozen  the  whole 
thing  can  be  loosened  and  a  drag  or  dray  put  under  it  for  transpor- 
tation. 

In  every  town  some  teamster  ought  to  construct  a  special  appar- 
atus for  the  transportation  of  trees  with  masses  of  soil  attached. 
The  possession  of  such  a  thing  will  make  the  act  easy  and  safe  and 
create  a  demand  for  transplanted  trees.  In  some  parts  of  the 
country  a  few  men  make  splendid  money  moving  trees  in  the 
winter  when  the  ground  is  hard,  the  lawns  are  uninjured,  and  the 
other  business  is  dull. 

The  Town  Streets. 

The  streets  of  towns  and  villages  have  suffered  greatly  from 
the  lack  of  plans  and  care.  Many  a  residence  street  is  laid  out 
like  a  commercial  highway,  with  a  broad,  dusty,  muddy  road 
stretching  from  sidewalk  to  sidewalk.  A  better  way  to  use  the 
same  space  would  be  to  leave  a  parkway  between  the  sidewalk 
and  the  road  on  either  side,  having  a  narrow  driving  street  with 
turning  spaces  at  the  corners.  This  plan  prevents  much  dust, 
is  cheaper  to  build  and  keep  in  repair,  while  the  parkings  may  be 
decorated  with  trees  and  shrubbery  to  the  great  betterment  of  the 
town  and  the  land  values. 

Many  of  our  cities  cannot  be  rebuilt  or  entirely  improved  in 
general  appearance  for  a  hundred  years  yet,  but  the  villages  with 
their  open  spaces  and  dusty  streets  can  be  made  to  look  like  differ- 

28 


ent  places  with  little  expense  and  labor.  One  of  the  places  that 
needs  treatment  most  of  all  is  the  railroad  station  and  the  property 
adjacent  to  the  track  through  the  town.  Some  towns  are  under 
a  permanent  handicap  because  of  the  frightful  condition  about  the 
railway  station,  which  advertises  unthrift  and  demoralization  to 
every  traveler. 

The  Rural  Homestead. 

There  are  thousands  of  country  homesteads  standing  with  cold 
feet  shivering  in  the  icy  winds  of  winter,  which  might,  almost 
without  expense,  be  given  a  permanent  aspect  of  beauty  and 
comfort.  With  a  background  of  spruces  thickly  walled  or  grouped 
behind  the  house  or  along  the  fence  with  an  occasional  lone  pine 
at  the  corners  for  variety  and  feature,  and  with  cedars  and  shrub- 
bery in  front,  many  common  looking  places  can  be  made  remarkable 
for  comfort  and  attractiveness,  the  property  value  increased,  and 
the  sentimental  interests  doubled. 

I  do  not  mean  to  ignore  or  discourage  the  use  of  deciduous 
trees;  they  can  be  used  with  others  and  we  all  know  their  beauties, 
but  they  do  not  compare  with  the  evergreens  in  the  possibilities 
for  improving  the  homesteads  and  landscapes.  The  evergreens 
cost  nothing  in  the  country,  they  are  permanent,  and  they  can  be 
trimmed  and  trained  to  conform  to  any  fancy  or  system  of  decora- 
tion. They  are  healthy  and  free  from  destructive  pests  to  which 
our  best  deciduous  trees  are  subject. 

The  Country  Scenery. 

The  improvement  of  urban  scenery  is  expensive  and  very 
difficult,  but  not  so  with  the  open  country.  Here  is  room  for 
expansion  and  the  expression  of  ideals,  a  free  field  and  abundant 
resources.  Every  New  England  town  ought  to  have  a  society 
devoted,  in  part  at  least,  to  the  preservation  and  development  of 
beauty  along  the  common  highways.  The  bushes  can  be  effectively 
cut  so  as  to  leave  clumps  of  picturesque  trees  and  openings  for  good 
views.  Farmers  can  be  influenced  to  leave  old  trees  where  they  are 
most  needed  and  young  ones  to  grow  in  prominent  places.  Many 
of  our  country  bridges  can  be  treated  with  good  results  by  leaving 
trees  or  planting  them  at  the  approaches.  Evergreens  are  espe- 
cially effective  in  such  places. 

29 


The  Church's  Opportunity. 

Here  is  a  field  of  opportunity  for  the  preacher  and  the  church, 
yea,  even  a  duty  long  neglected.  Let  the  work  begin  with  the 
beautification  of  the  church  grounds  and  extend  to  the  school 
yards,  the  cemetery,  the  public  square,  the  streets,  railway  station, 
the  roads  and  bridges,  and  even  out  into  the  open  country.  On 
such  a  subject  the  people  will  listen  to  the  preacher  and  follow  his 
lead  in  the  cooperative  betterment  of  the  community.  Here  is  an 
opportunity  for  the  young  people's  society  to  engage  in  landscape 
gardening,  for  the  men's  clubs  to  realize  permanent  social  service, 
for  the  boy  scouts  to  get  long  tramps  and  exercise  at  cutting  bushes, 
trimming  roadways,  and  planting  trees,  and  for  the  preacher  to 
show  the  living  God  in  a  beautiful  world  of  nature  and  of  works 
for  the  common  good.  It  is  just  as  effective  for  the  people  to 
mingle  their  fingers  in  the  dirt  while  carrying  out  a  cooperative 
public  service  as  to  blend  their  voices  in  prayer  meeting,  and  it 
may  be  more  beneficial  to  the  church. 

"New  England  1920." 

Of  course  New  England  will  celebrate  her  300th  anniversary 
in  a  fitting  and  impressive  manner,  but  she  can  make  no  improve- 
ment which  will  be  cheaper,  more  natural,  more  permanent,  or 
more  beneficial  than  to  use  the  God-given  advantages  at  her  very 
doors  and  make  herself  the  most  beautiful  section  of  all  America. 
It  can  easily  be  done.  New  England  is  geographically  and  his- 
torically only  one  state;  her  whole  six  commonwealths  combined 
are  not  as  large  in  area  as  Kansas  or  any  one  of  a  score  of  Western 
States.  She  is  naturally  the  most  beautiful  area  in  America, 
and  with  a  little  effort  she  can  surpass  all  other  states  in  those 
things  which  make  life  satisfactory  and  joyous.  She  has  popu- 
lation exceeded  only  by  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  and  her 
wealth  is  equalled  by  the  Empire  State  alone. 

Land  of  the  sea  and  the  lake  and  the  mountain  peak, 
Of  the  pointed  spruce  and  the  murmuring  pine, 
Of  the  scented  cedar's  lacy  leaf, 
Of  majestic  elms  and  trailing  vine. 

30 


Land  of  the  leaping  waterfall, 

Of  the  secret  brook  and  the  speckled  trout, 

Of  the  cliff  and  the  sand  and  the  tumbling  surf 

Where  smudge  and  care  are  all  washed  out. 

Land  where  freedom  first  arose, 
Where  the  Red  Coat  felt  the  patriot's  fire, 
Land  of  the  seer,  the  prophet,  and  bard, 
Of  learned  halls  and  sacred  spire. 

New  England,  old  enchanted  land, 

We  hail  thee,  Queen  of  Columbia's  realm. 


31 


ONE  SOLUTION  OF  THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  COUNTRY 

CHURCH. 

REV.    MYRON    L.    CUTLER,    EAST    JAFFREY,    N.    H. 

The  Problem  of  the  Country  Church  is  a  problem  of  men, 
of  finances,  and  of  conditions,  local  and  modern.    " 

The  last  point  must  be  studied  by  each  church  and  pastor  and 
dealt  with  by  themselves.  The  first  two  are  more  general  and  of 
these  I  shall  speak  from  an  experience  of  nearly  twenty-four  years 
in  our  little  country  parish  with  all  the  usual  difficulties  one  meets. 
I  shall  treat  this  matter  briefly,  putting  into  few  words  my  con- 
clusions arrived  at  with  much  difficulty  and  long  experience. 

The  conditions  of  country  life  are  not  as  unfortunate  and  evil 
as  often  pictured  by  the  occasional  city  visitor  who  knows  little 
about  these  things  and  attempts  to  measure  appearances  by  city 
standards.  Morally,  intellectually,  and  progressively,  countrymen 
are  up  to  date,  and  especially  in  matters  of  morals  and  propriety. 
We  can  teach  our  city  cousins  some  things  to  their  advantage. 
In  the  city  nobody  knows  anybody  else  nor  cares  what  others 
do,  and  hence  public  opinion  has  little  regulative  force.  In  the 
country  everybody  knows  everybody  and  what  he  is  up  to,  and 
public  opinion  is  a  great  force  which  few  dare  ignore. 

Hence  the  importance  of  the  country  church,  the  only  organized 
effort  to  shape  the  moral  life  of  the  community.  We  read  the  best 
books,  papers,  and  magazines,  and  have  time  to  think  on  these 
things. 

The  country  laity  demand  good,  thoughtful,  sound  sermons, 
and  will  not  waste  time  listening  to  any  other.  Moreover  every- 
where men  like  to  listen  to  and  follow  their  own  kind,  especially 
the  best  of  their  own  kind.  Jesus,  the  peasant,  of  the  common 
people,  preached  to  all  the  people,  but  the  common  people  alone 
heard  him  gladly,  because  he  was  of  their  kind  and  better  than  they. 
So  the  country  minister  should  be  a  country  man,  born  and  bred, 
well  informed  of  country  life  and  interests.  A  city  man  will  be 
heavily  handicapped.  So  too  he  must  be  honest,  sincere,  unselfish, 
ready  to  serve  without  money  and  without  price. 

People  are  quick  to  discern  the  man  behind  the  preacher, 

33 


none  quicker  than  the  countryman.  And  if  the  man  fails  his 
words  will  fail.  The  man  is  of  much  greater  importance  than  the 
orator,  for  a  handful  listens  to  the  sermon  on  Sunday,  but  the 
whole  community  watches  the  minister  all  the  week  and  measures 
him  carefully,  and  if  he  falls  short  of  the  well  understood  standard 
his  influence  is  nothing.  The  same  is  true  of  the  church  member. 
The  Church  must  lead  to  better  things  or  die.  Therefore  let 
quality  not  quantity  of  church  membership  be  considered.  A 
dozen  goodly  people  working  together  for  righteousness  are  worth 
more  than  a  thousand  who  will  not  work  together  and  care  nothing 
for  righteousness  and  are  only  selfishly  seeking  their  own  salvation. 

The  other  point  in  the  problem  of  the  country  church  is  the 
financial  one,  and  by  many  it  is  deemed  greatest  if  not  insoluble. 
I  do  not  think  so.  I  know  better.  Hundreds  of  communities  are 
denied  the  gospel  because  of  lack  of  financial  ability  to  pay  for  it. 
The  poor  are  not  having  the  "gospel  preached  to  them,"  disciples 
of  Jesus  Christ  are  not  doing  their  duty.  Some  churches  are 
endowed.  Rich  people  die  and  leave  funds  to  help  support  the 
church.  All  this  is  good  but  not  sufficient.  Money  can  not  make 
churches.  Dead  men  are  beyond  the  power  to  help.  A  church 
is  a  body  of  people  organized  for  the  purpose  of  advancing  the 
welfare  of  men  within  and  without  the  church.  This  must  be 
borne  in  mind.  A  million  dollar  endowment  is  useless  in  an  empty 
church.  Moreover  people  will  usually  pay  currently  for  what  they 
want  and  are  convinced  they  need,  but  small  communities  of 
moderate  means  cannot  pay  princely  salaries  and  no  minister 
has  a  right  to  expect  to  be  supported  above  the  average  of  his 
people. 

What  then  is  the  solution  of  the  financial  problem  of  the  small 
country  parish?  I  studied  this  for  years,  lay  awake  nights,  and 
worried  over  the  matter  till  I  threw  away  my  selfish  ambition  to  get 
into  a  larger  church  with  a  bigger  salary,  stopped  listening  for 
the  Lord  to  call  me  up  higher,  threw  away  my  plug  hat  and 
ministerial  garb  on  week  days,  forgot  my  dignity  as  a  man  and 
sought  the  dignity  of  a  good  citizen,  remembering  that  my  Master 
was  a  carpenter  without  a  salary,  that  Saint  Paul  earned  his  own 
living  making  tents  that  he  might  have  the  opportunity  to  preach. 
And  so  I  took  off  my  coat  and  went  to  work  like  the  rest  of  my 
people;  and  the  financial  problem  is  settled.  The  people  pay  what 
they  can  without  impoverishing  themselves  and  I  earn  the  rest. 

34 


Brethren  in  the  Christian  Ministry,  the  church  is  not  here  for 
us  to  exploit,  but  to  use  for  humanity's  welfare,  present  and  future. 
Our  attitude  should  not  be  one  of  self-seeking.  What  can  we  get 
out  of  it,  not  of  salary  but  of  opportunity?  Are  we  willing  to  do 
anything  honorable  for  the  sake  of  the  opportunity  to  tell  the  world 
of  Jesus'  way  to  live  and  glorify  the  Father  of  all  men?  Hundreds 
of  small  country  places  are  waiting  for  some  one  to  come  and  tell 
the  "old  old  story"  and  can  and  will  gladly  pay  from  $100  to  $500 
a  year.  But  we  are  sending  our  heroic  missionary  men  and  women 
abroad  at  a  good  salary  to  preach  to  the  foreign  heathen  who 
understand  little  and  care  less.  Meanwhile  our  own  heathen  are 
neglected  within  our  own  borders  and  getting  ready  to  make  our 
nation  trouble.  If  we  can  get  young  men  to  look  at  this  matter 
rightly  we  shall  not  need  even  home  missionary  boards  with  great 
resources.  All  we  v/ant  is  men,  just  men,  of  Christian  motive, 
who  will  go  anywhere  and,  working  with  head  and  hands,  make  a 
place  for  themselves  and  build  up  little  churches  in  every  little 
community,  and  at  the  same  time  build  up  the  community  and 
save  the  nation  from  falling  and  save  men  from  ruin. 

Jesus'  last  command  was  '  'Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and  preach 
my  gospel  to  every  creature."  He  said  nothing  of  salary  and  he 
did  not  tell  us  to  all  run  for  the  city.  No  earnest  man  who  believes 
in  God  and  men  and  does  his  best  need  worry  about  salary  or 
wages. 

Much  might  be  said  of  the  importance  of  the  country  as  feeding 
the  city  life  and  of  kindred  things,  but  I  think  those  things  are  well 
understood. 

The  world  is  growing  fast,  and  has  less  and  less  use  for  peculiar 
garb,  or  pretended  excellence,  but  more  and  more  use  for  men  who 
fit  their  work  and  station  and  fill  their  station,  and  there  is  great 
satisfaction  in  even  a  small  task  well  done. 

The  personality  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  most  potent  force  for 
good  in  this  world. 

The  solution  of  the  problem  of  the  country  church  lies  very 
largely  in  the  quality  of  the  Country  Minister,  and  of  this  I  am  now 
firmly  convinced  every  day  I  live.  And  farming  is  the  best  means 
of  helping  out  in  this  problem  because  it  is  an  independent  occupa- 
tion and  a  good  farm  well  kept  is  the  best  authority  on  theology 
I  have  ever  found. 


35 


EDUCATION  FOR  RURAL  LIFE. 

BY  PROFESSOR  O.  H.  BENSON,  BUREAU  OF  PLANT  INDUSTRY, 

WASHINGTON,   D.    C. 

(In  Boys'  and  Girls'  Demonstration  Work.) 

The  greatest  need  of  America  today  is  an  educational  policy 
built  from  the  ground  up,  rather  than  from  the  '  cup  to  the  ground 
down"  as  has  been  generally  true  during  the  past  fifty  years, 
throughout  the  states. 

The  depopulation  of  rural  communities  and  rapid  growth  of 
our  already  congested  centers  of  population  should  give  us  serious 
concern. 

A  Re-directed  Education. 

The  demand  for  a  re-directed  education  in  our  rural  and  com- 
mon schools  is  not  a  local  matter,  but  a  demand  which  is  being 
made  all  over  the  United  States  upon  the  men  and  women  in  charge 
of  educational  work,  and  everywhere  the  questions  are  being  asked : 
What  shall  we  Teach?  How  do  you  Teach  It?  Can  it  be  done 
without  loss  in  efficiency  and  the  results  to  the  three  R's? 

To  the  first  question  I  would  answer,  teach  all  the  subjects 
of  farm  and  home  life  that  can  be  studied  in  connection  with  the 
daily  school  studies  and  as  substitutes  for  many  of  the  non-essen- 
tials now  existing  in  the  average  common  school.  Instead  of 
"cube  root"  "compound  proportion,"  "alligation,"  etc.,  substitute 
practical  farm  and  kitchen  arithmetic. 

Instead  of  the  months  of  hard  work  outlined  in  the  average 
grammar  text  book  (a  boys'  natural  enemy)  in  technical  and 
formal  analysis,  substitute  for  this  the  necessary  practice  and  drill 
that  will  help  the  child  to  express  his  ideas  and  facts  in  clear  and 
cultured  English. 

Instead  of  the  great  amount  of  technical  physiology,  such  as 
scientific  names  of  bones,  nerves,  and  muscles,  substitute  for  these 
some  home-economic  subjects,  such  as  ventilation,  food  values, 

37 


laws  of  home  and  personal  hygiene,  balanced  rations,  composi- 
tion of  foods  as  related  to  human  needs,  and  many  other  subjects 
of  equal  importance  and  related  to  the  elementary  science  of  living. 

Instead  of  the  large  amount  of  meaningless  copy-work  usually 
given  in  the  penmanship  exercises,  substitute  the  practical  writing 
exercises  in  story  and  discussion  about  live  and  first  hand  subjects, 
such  as  relate  to  the  farm  and  home  interests. 

Instead  of  the  criminal  exploitation  of  wars  and  bloodshed  in 
the  study  of  United  States  history,  take  up  a  systematic  study  of 
the  history  and  development  of  our  great  American  industries  as 
they  are  related  to  man  and  his  economic  welfare,  agriculturally. 

Instead  of  juggling  with  the  vast  amount  of  dead  matter  in 
map  boundaries,  location  of  foreign  cities,  and  geographical  pre- 
cisions which  point  nowhere  but  kill  time  and  furnish  the  teacher 
with  excuse  for  spending  time  and  energy  in  teaching  the  subject 
of  geography,  let  us  study  geography  by  using  the  great  agricultural, 
commercial,  and  industrial  interests  as  they  relate  to  man,  as  the 
basis  and  reason  for  the  existence  of  the  subject.  Map  study 
should  be  incidental  instead  of  basic  in  its  use. 

In  answer  to  the  second  question  I  would  say  in  brief,  there 
are  three  important  methods  or  plans  by  which  elementary  agri- 
culture and  home  economics  can  be  taught  in  our  common  schools, 
■viz:  — 

1.  By  effective  correlation  as  suggested  in  the  booklet  work 
and  in  the  above  plan  of  substitution. 

2.  By  general  lessons  to  be  given  daily  in  a  systematic  and 
seasonable  way,  on  subjects  that  most  concern  the  community 
and  home  life. 

3.  By  regular  classwork  with  textbook  in  hand  of  pupil  and 
with  available  supplies  for  laboratory  experiments  in  the  study  of 
seeds,  soils,  plants,  and  chemical  action  of  soils. 

It  must  be  understood  that  the  school  library  should  contain 
a  good  list  of  helpful  books  and  references  on  the  farm  and  home 
life  subjects,  also  available  agricultural  bulletins  and  many  splen- 
did books  and  publications  on  the  book  markets  of  our  land. 

To  the  third  important  question  I  would  answer  emphatically 
"yes-"  After  four  years  of  careful  investigation  and  experience 
in  promoting  this  work  as  a  County  Supervisor  of  Schools,  I  have 
positive  evidence  to  the  effect  that,  without  an  exception,  the  teach- 
ers and  schools  following  this  plan  of  teaching  agriculture  and  home 

38 


economics  give  greater  efficiency  in  reading,  writing,  and  arith- 
metic than  do  other  schools  where  this  work  is  neglected.  Seventy- 
five  per  cent  of  the  boys  and  girls  who  failed  to  pass  the  uniform 
eighth  grade  examination  in  Wright  County,  Iowa,  in  1910,  came 
from  the  schools  in  which  practically  nothing  was  done  to  correlate 
agricultural  and  home  life  studies  with  regular  school  work.  To  be 
plainer,  the  ratio  of  three  to  one  was  in  favor  of  the  "re-directed 
school."  In  looking  over  the  written  manuscripts  the  writing 
and  compositions  from  the  pupils  of  the  "re-directed  schools" 
were  markedly  better  than  the  papers  that  came  from  the  schools 
where  nothing  was  done  except  to  defend  in  the  usual  and  senti- 
mental way  the  old  "culture  sake"  and  "three  R"  education. 

We  desire  to  impress  upon  our  auditors  the  fact  that  the  prime 
object  of  this  kind  of  re-directed  education  is  to  get  the  teacher 
into  a  correct  personal  attitude  toward  her  pupils  and  their  environ- 
ment, and  to  render  more  efficient  the  work  of  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic;  to  give  the  training  that  "fits  into  life  and  makes  us 
capable  of  self  expression  and  the  larger  service  to  our  fellow  man." 

The  schools  of  today  must  determine  very  largely  the  citizen- 
ship of  tomorrow.  We  cannot  hope  to  secure  a  citizenship  trained 
in  agricultural  and  industrial  tastes  and  interests  unless  we  give 
this  direction  in  our  common  schools.  Too  long  we  have  left  this 
most  important  phase  of  education  to  our  few  technical  schools 
in  large  cities,  reformatories,  penitentiaries,  etc.,  until  it  would 
seem  impossible  to  conserve  our  industrial  interests  and  our  Ameri- 
can agriculture  without  increasing  in  youthful  crime.  As  Super- 
intendent J.  D.  Eggleston  of  Virginia  puts  it:  "The  gospel  of 
better  agriculture  is  a  holy  cause  and  we  are  treading  upon  holy 
ground,"  and  no  longer  should  we  desecrate  it  by  ignoring  our 
relation  to  the  humble  but  dignified  tiller  of  the  soil. 

The  problem  of  rural  leadership  is  a  four  square  proposition; 
it  involves  all  the  interests  of  the  farm,  home,  church  and  school; 
and  the  leader  must  be  a  four  square  individual,  trained  in  head, 
heart,  hands,  and  hustle,  the  "  four  H's "  rather  than  the  "  three 
R's."  It  involves  a  leader  with  head  trained  to  think,  plan,  and 
reason,  and  not  a  slave  to  the  mere  text  book  or  the  formal  insti- 
tution, a  leader  with  heart  trained  to  be  true,  kind,  and  sympathetic; 
hands  trained  to  be  useful,  helpful,  and  skillful;  and  the  hustle 
trained  to  render  ready  service  and  to  develop  health  and  vitality 
which  will  furnish  a  suitable  background  for  a  noble  purpose. 

39 


We  acknowledge  with  shame  that  most  of  our  rural  leaders  of 
the  past  have,  because  of  their  training  and  life-time  environment, 
turned  out  to  be  pirates  and  robbers  on  rural  life.  They  have 
aroused  a  false  discontent  with  members  of  agricultural  territory, 
and  have  pointed  the  way  to  the  already  overcrowded  professions 
and  towards  our  congested  centers  of  population.  The  result  has 
been  that  nearly  all  of  our  agricultural  states  have  lost  greatly 
in  population  during  the  past  ten  years,  and  our  large  cities  show  a 
marked  increase  —  many  of  them  a  gain  of  over  200  per  cent  during 
the  past  ten  years. 

Broad  View  of  Rural  Uplift. 

In  order  to  serve  the  needs  of  rural  life  and  develop  all  the 
forces  which  belong  to  an  intelligent  people,  we  must  provide,  on 
an  equal  basis  and  at  the  same  time,  for  a  greater  and  more  efficient 
agriculture;  a  better  and  more  attractive  home  life;  a  healthful 
and  interesting  social  life,  and,  last  but  not  least,  we  must  give 
them  a  rural-life  church,  headed  by  a  practical  clergyman  capable 
of  expounding  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  in  the  language  of  his 
agricultural  environment.  I  can  point  you  to  no  greater  rural- 
life  preacher  as  your  ideal  than  the  lowly  Saviour,  who  used  at  all 
times  illustrations  from  agricultural  and  industrial  life  in  His 
references  to  "lost  sheep,"  "shepherd,"  "the  sower,"  "tares," 
"sheaves,"  "the  carpenter  shop,"  "good  and  poor  soil,"  etc.,  and 
by  which  multitudes  were  attracted  to  the  higher  life.  Let  me 
emphasize  the  fact  that  with  this  kind  of  rural  church  leadership 
our  thousands  of  country  churches,  now  desolate,  will  soon  become 
densely  populated  and  the  working  as  well  as  the  paying  efficiency 
of  the  membership  will  exceed  that  of  our  city  churches.  The 
trouble  with  our  rural  pastors,  like  our  rural  teachers  in  the  past, 
has  been,  most  of  them  have  been  out  of  touch  and  genuine  sym- 
pathy with  our  farm  population  and  have  preached  into  them  city, 
commercial,  and  political  ideals  instead  of  rural  interests. 

Every  country  church  pastor  should  have  an  agricultural 
course  in  correlation  with  the  study  of  Hebrew  and  theology,  and 
some  of  this  training  should  be  first-hand  agriculture  in  demonstra- 
tion work.  Friends,  believe  me,  that  the  greatest  reputations  to 
be  made  in  teaching  and  preaching  in  the  future  will  be  in  rural 
life  work.     Public  sentiment  is  in  favor  of  agriculture  and  if  we 

40 


lake  advantage  of  the  psychological  moment  we  can  do  much  to 
hasten  the  day  when,  in  the  language  of  our  beloved  Bishop  of 
Southern  Agriculture,  Dr.  Seaman  A.  Knapp,  "rural  life  will  be 
upon  a  plane  of  profit,  honor,  and  power,"  and  where  "the  common 
toiler  will  become  educated  in  the  things  that  lead  to  easier  bread." 

Valuable  Rural  Events. 

Annual  township  graduation  exercises  ought  to  be  held  in  the 
center  of  the  township,  in  which  all  schools,  together  with  patrons 
and  friends,  spend  the  entire  day  in  the  educational  and  social  up- 
lift of  the  community.  Here  is  a  typical  program  of  such  an  event, 
this  or  a  similar  one  having  been  carried  out  in  all  sixteen  of  the 
township  schools  of  Wright  County,  Iowa,  for  several  years,  with 
an  attendance  varying  from  250  to  1260,  men,  women  and  children. 

(1)  Literary  program  of  graduates;  (2)  presentation  of 
diplomas   or  certificates   of  promotion   to  nearby  high  schools; 

(3)  basket  dinner,  in  which  all  participated,  and  usually  the  people 
of  one  district  would  spread  dinners  together,  thus  cementing 
friendships,  and  unifying  their  ambitions  for  a  common  purpose; 

(4)  in  the  afternoon  agricultural  and  rural  life  lectures  would  be 
given  on  such  subjects  as  Stock  Judging,  Soil  Fertility,  Preven- 
tion of  Diseases  on  the  Farm,  Better  Sanitation,  Our  Schools 
And  What  They  Need,  etc.;  (5)  following  this  lecture  we  would 
have  our  annual  field  sports,  in  which  all  the  young  people  of  the 
township  would  participate,  while  fathers  and  mothers  would  be  the 
interested  spectators.  During  the  entire  day  the  school  exhibit 
tent  would  be  full  of  the  specimens  of  school  work  of  the  year,  such 
as  writing,  solution  of  problems,  sewing,  wood  work,  and  maps. 

The  county  school  official  would  erect  the  tent  in  the  morning 
and  take  it  down  at  night  and  move  on  to  the  next  township  event. 
These  gatherings  are  always  held  in  a  fine  grove  or  at  one  of  the 
best  and  most  modern  farm  homes,  the  philosophy  of  which  you 
can  well  understand. 

At  District  Agricultural  and  County  Fairs  and  the  Farmer's 
Institutes,  the  schools  and  their  work  always  held  a  conspicuous 
place.  Exhibits  put  up  in  competition  for  honors  and  premiums 
were  always  in  evidence,  such  as  booklets  on  agricultural  subjects, 
wood  work,  sewing,  baking,  vegetables,  corn,  etc.  Contests  in 
potato-paring,  sewing,  seed-corn   stringing,  stock  judging,  grain 

41 


judging,  practical  rope-knot-tying,  addition,  spelling,  reading, 
etc.,  were  held.  Let  me  illustrate  by  giving  a  few  facts  about  one 
of  these  contests.  In  the  rope-tying  contest  last  year  the  cham- 
pion rope-tyer  of  the  county,  Russell  Breckenridge,  tied,  named, 
and  untied  38  practical  rope  knots  in  six  minutes  and  did  it  to  the 
complete  satisfaction  of  both  referees  and  spectators.  Upon 
investigation  we  found  that  the  boy  had  spent  his  otherwise  idle 
moments  for  one  full  year  in  quest  of  help  and  information  on  rope- 
tying;  he  had  exhausted  all  the  information  available  from  his 
father,  teacher,  hired  man,  neighbors,  dictionary,  set  of  reference 
books  in  school  library,  and  had  found  some  information  from  state 
agricultural  professors.  To  the  fool  the  above  named  contests 
would  seem  folly  and  mere  "fun  show,"  but  to  the  thinker  and 
philosopher  of  the  needed  rural  education  it  has  deep  and  significant 
meaning  in  this  business  of  reclaiming  the  arid  interests  of  a  country 
people.  I  only  wish  I  had  time  to  tell  you  about  the  influence  of 
this  kind  of  work  on  the  character  and  ambition  of  the  boys  and 
girls. 

At  the  Farmer's  Institute  and  County  Short  Course  nearly 
half  of  the  students  each  year  are  boys  and  girls  and  their  rural 
teachers.  In  the  rural  schools  the  subjects  of  elementary  agri- 
culture and  home  economics  are  taught  by  effective  correlation, 
general  lessons,  and  in  regular  class  work.  Too  much  of  our  rural 
education  has  been  a  process  of  marking  time  and  of  perpetuating 
an  ancient  and  fossilized  caste  education,  and  many  of  our  so  called 
educational  leaders  have  spent  much  time  in  defending  in  a  sickly 
and  sentimental  way  the  "culture  sake"  and  "three  R"  education 
without  regard  for  the  child  life  and  his  environment. 


Farmers'  Cooperative  Demonstration  Work. 

You  are  all  more  or  less  familiar  with  the  work  in  the  Southern 
States  which  has  been  directed  by  Dr.  Seaman  A.  Knapp,  Special 
Agent  In  Charge,  a  work  made  possible  by  the  financial  support 
and  cooperation  of  the  General  Education  Board  and  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  at  Washington,  D.  C.  In  my  judgment 
no  greater  nor  more  significant  work  of  service  for  the  common 
people  has  ever  been  instituted  on  this  continent  by  man. 

The  increased  production  of  southern  farm  areas;   the  evolu- 

42 


tion  of  a  rural  population  from  poverty,  inefficiency,  and  despair 
to  a  people  of  dignity,  hope,  and  national  influence,  will  be  a  last- 
ing tribute  to  our  departed  leader  who  loved,  served,  and  planned 
for  the  masses  of  our  common  people  so  long  and  well. 

Dr.  Knapp  organized  the  Farmers'  Demonstration  Work  in 
1904,  and  every  year  since  that  time  thousands  of  southern  farm- 
ers have  become  demonstrators  and  educators  in  their  respective 
localities  for  the  better  and  more  efficient  agriculture.  Last  year 
(1910)  72,685  men  farmed  one  or  more  acres  on  a  scientific  basis 
and  followed  carefully  the  instructions  furnished  by  Dr.  Knapp  at 
Washington.  The  Boys'  Corn  Club  and  Demonstration  Work 
was  organized  in  1907.  It  was  started  with  but  a  few  hundred 
members  and  this  branch  of  the  work  grew  with  electrical  rapidity. 
In  1909,  the  Boys'  Corn  Club  numbered  12,000,  in  1910,  46,225. 
Three  hundred  of  these  boys  produced  a  yield  of  over  100  bushels 
of  corn  per  acre,  one  hundred  of  the  boys  raised  on  an  average  of 
133.7  bushels  per  acre,  with  a  champion  yield  by  Jerry  Moore  of 
South  Carolina  of  228.7  bushels  per  acre. 

The  Boys'  Corn  Club  for  1911  will  number  over  75,000  who  on 
their  one  or  more  acre  plots  will  follow  the  Department  instruc- 
tion, given  below: 

1.  Boys  joining  clubs  and  entering  contests  must  be  between 
10  and  18  years  of  age  on  January  1,  of  any  given  year. 

2.  No  boy  shall  contest  for  a  prize  unless  he  becomes  a  mem- 
ber of  a  club. 

3.  The  members  of  the  clubs  must  agree  to  study  the  instruc- 
tions of  the  Farmers'  Cooperative  Demonstration  Work. 

4.  Each  boy  must  plan  his  own  crop  and  do  his  own  work. 
A  small  boy  may  hire  help  for  heavy  plowing  in  preparing  the  soil. 

5.  Exhibits  must  be  delivered  to  the  county  superintendent 
of  education  on  or  before  November  1. 

6.  The  land  and  corn  must  be  carefully  measured  in  the  pres- 
ence of  at  least  two  disinterested  witnesses,  who  shall  attest  the 
certificate  of  the  boy. 

7.  Gather  the  corn  and  weigh  it.  Weigh  two  100  pound  lots 
from  different  parts  of  the  total.  Shuck  and  shell  each  lot  and  then 
weigh  the  shelled  corn  in  each  instance  in  order  to  find  the  average 
percentage  of  shelled  corn.  Multiply  the  total  weight  by  this 
per  cent  and  divide  by  56  to  get  the  number  of  bushels. 

43 


8.     In  awarding  prizes  the  following  has  been  used : 

Per  cent 

a.  Greatest  yield  per  acre 30 

b.  Best  exhibit  of  ten  ears  . 20 

c.  Best  written  account  showing  history  of  crop       ....     20 

d.  Best  showing  of  profit  on  investment  based  on  the  com- 

mercial price  of  corn 30 

Last  year  the  thirteen  Southern  States  had  winners  who  were 
entitled  to  the  free  prize  trip  to  Washington,  and  the  diploma  from 
Secretary  James  Wilson. 

The  boys  from  eleven  states  came  to  Washington.  The  average 
production  of  the  eleven  winners  was  134  bushels  per  acre.  I  regret 
that  time  will  permit  but  few  statements  in  regard  to  this  work. 

Last  year  Dr.  Knapp  felt  that  it  was  time  to  look  after  the 
education  of  the  rural  girls  for  a  more  contented  and  attractive 
rural  life,  and  so  he  had  the  girls  of  a  few  counties  organized  into 
tomato  canning  clubs,  with  a  membership  of  about  300  who  raised 
one-tenth  acre  of  tomatoes  each,  canned  and  marketed  the  surplus 
products.  During  the  present  year  over  2000  girls  will  follow  the 
demonstration  instructions  for  the  garden  and  canning  work. 

The  mothers  are  usually  interested  with  the  girls,  and  hence 
you  see  that  Dr.  Knapp's  plan  for  rural  education  is  for  the  entire 
family,  a  plan  which  recognizes  the  real  needs  of  our  present  day 
rural  life. 

In  conclusion  let  me  emphasize  the  necessity  of  education  in 
all  of  the  interests  of  rural  life,  and  of  recognizing  that  the  school 
exists  for  the  child,  and  that  its  efficiency  lies  in  the  ability  to  give 
power  and  definite  expression  to  the  "ninety  and  nine"  within 
their  industrial  and  agricultural  surroundings.  Every  country 
child  should  be  helped  to  understand  that  intelligent  farming  and 
home-keeping  are  two  of  the  most  dignified  and  worthy  professions 
on  earth. 


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